PRESS RELEASE
Brussels
20 June 2022
Second round of France’s parliamentary elections - A bittersweet result: Macron loses his absolute majority as the left-wing and the Greens surge, but so do the far-right
Macron’s party LREM (La République En Marche !) suffered a huge loss in France’s second round of parliamentary elections. With 246 seats, his coalition (Ensemble !) is way short of again securing an absolute majority.
Meanwhile the far-right surged beyond expectations, with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (Rassemblement National) winning a record 89 seats - more than a tenfold increase from the party’s previously held seats.
The French Greens ÉELV (Europe Écologie les Verts) ran as part of the Green-Left coalition NUPES (Nouvelle Union Populaire Écologique et Sociale). The NUPES coalition secured 142 seats in the National Assembly, whilst the Greens won 23, allowing them to form a parliamentary group five years after having lost it.
Mélanie Vogel, Co-Chair of the European Green Party and Senator in the French Senate for ÉELV comments:
“The far-right's result in this election is terrible news for France. LREM – who previously presented themselves as a barrier to the far-right – has a major responsibility in making the Rassemblement National the biggest opposition group in the new French parliament. By campaigning on ‘the dangers of the extreme left’ and by refusing to give voting indications in cases where NUPES candidates were opposing far-right candidates in the second round, they pursued the normalisation of fascist and anti-European ideas in the country.
“By not giving a majority to the current government, French citizens have shown the need for a changed political system in France. The ultra-presidentialisation of the current regime is on its way out. Having lost his majority, Macron no longer has the political legitimacy to conduct further antisocial reforms – such as his pension reform, more tax breaks for the rich, budget cuts for the health sector – and relaunch the nuclear industry.
“In the new parliament, the French Greens will fight to ensure that France responds to the climate and environmental emergency and shifts to an economy at the service of the planet and people’s wellbeing. As we prepare to continue to tackle the triple crises of pandemic, climate, and war on the continent, it is more vital than ever that Green policies prevail to secure a liveable future.”
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